The Complexities of Time

Introduction To Time

This essay touches briefly on various aspects and dimensions
of time. To a scientist, time is a relatively simple matter, but
when one gets into the Bible time has qualitative and subjective
aspects---there is much more to consider. The Bible contrasts
time and eternity as well. God is outside of time. He is,

"...the high and lofty one, who inhabits
eternity." (Isaiah 57:15)

Time as we know it was created by God---it is part of
the creation. (Note A) However the created universe consists
of a physical, material world and a spiritual realm---the latter
is called in the New Testament "the heavenly places."
In the heavenlies time has quite different properties than we
usually think about in regard to the physical, material world.
Man was created to live in both worlds (the material and the spiritual)
at the same "time" and a study of time and eternity
(a much neglected subject) carries a number of surprises. The
physical universe has been drastically affected by the fall of
Lucifer and his angels, and by the fall of man. This means we
now live in a damaged, deteriorating "old creation."
Time itself has been altered by the fall.

Is The Age of the Universe Indeterminate?

Virtually all modern geology and astronomy textbooks today
take it for granted that the solar system is at least four or
five billion years old, and it is now assumed such great ages
are gospel truth. Anthropologists take it for granted that man
is at least several millions of years old.

But only in the past 200 years or so has Western science come
to believe in a very old universe as opposed to a recent creation.
The assumption of a very old universe has become such an ingrained
paradigm that jokes are routinely made in classrooms and textbooks
about Archbishop Ussher's alleged assignment of the date, day,
and hour of creation in 4004 BC.

The Bible actually opens with the statement "In the beginning
God..." without making any reference to date and time. In
both Hebrew and Greek, the idea of "the beginning" means
the "indefinite distant past." This is not to suggest
that man's early history fades into obscure mists of mythology
as we go backwards in time, but that God has not revealed all
that we would like to know about the exact "time" of
the creation of all things.

Like Genesis, the Gospel of John opens with the words, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God." It is declared in Scripture that God always
was, always will be, and is unchanging---"Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8) The
"beginning" referred to in John's gospel is actually
an earlier point in time than the "beginning" of Genesis
One. John says "the Word was with God" prior to the
creation of the universe, and in fact all things were brought
into being through the Word.

As far as archaeology and recorded history are concerned human
civilizations appear to be only of the order of thousands, not
millions, of years old. The Bible is an exceptionally accurate
document, and there is no ancient document for which we have better
manuscript authority (or evidence), or into which more man-years
of intense scholarship have been invested in recovering the original
text. The Old Testament genealogies have very few gaps in them
(if any at all!) and are actually quite complete so that one can
estimate the time of Adam, the first man, as occurring only a
few thousand years before Christ.

The internal structure of the Bible makes it difficult to place
the creation of Adam more that a few thousands of years in the
past. Sadly, for many secular scientists this fact is considered
sufficient reason for them to ignore the Bible altogether as a
relevant source of reliable information on any subject. However,
a Biblical world-view must in the long run be consistent with
scientific data---properly interpreted. The God of the Bible is
the God of truth and in the end truth from all possible sources
must harmonize.

It may be, however, that the actual age of the universe is
indeterminate. I believe this to be the case because God has apparently
hidden from us the key evidence we need to unravel the past back
to the time of creation. Twice the Bible makes important statements
(consistent with each other) that suggest the fundamental nature
of time, and many aspects of the actual course of history, presently
escape our understanding to a large degree. Solomon says,

"I have seen the business that God
has given to the sons of men to be busy with. He has made everything
beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind,
yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the
beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)

Just as we cannot figure out God's ways and understand precisely
how He works, (Romans 11:33), so also we may not notice events
that are actually crucial to His plans and programs. And we may
mislabel other events in history as important when actually they
turn out to be unimportant in the long run. Most of Israel totally
missed the many prophetic fulfillments that took place during
the First Advent of their Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus), for instance.
Only afterwards did His followers figure out what actually had
been happening in God's plan as revealed in the Old Testament.

Our knowledge of what actually happened in the past is inadequate;
the details of what was important and what was not are obscured
in the mists of time. It is most difficult for historians to reconstruct
what actually happened in the past. (History books are always
being rewritten). Likewise, we cannot predict what events will
unfold tomorrow with any real certainty, nor set a date for the
return of Christ. Yet we are restlessly preoccupied with time
and frustrated when we cannot unravel its secrets with all the
precision a modern atomic clock can give us.

When Jesus left His disciples forty days after His resurrection,
ascending into the cloud, (that is, through the space-time gateway
of the Shekinah glory cloud into the heavenly places) from the
Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, His disciples were anxious for word
of His return. Jesus told them,

"...It is not for you to know the times or seasons which
the Father has fixed by his own authority." (Acts 1:7; compare
with Matthew 24:36).

This scripture clearly implies that all attempts to set dates
for the next World War and the second coming of Jesus are wasted
effort. The ages past are also difficult for us to unravel
and must remain full of mystery. The tapestry of the past has
many folds, and we easily lose track of most of them in our feeble
attempts to trace history backwards.

Modern secular science is built on the assumption that the
laws of physics have never changed. Therefore we can make measurements
say for 50 or 100 years and derive theories which can then be
extrapolated backwards in time to the beginning of all things.
This approach to science is known as "uniformitarianism"
about which we are specifically warned in the New Testament in
the Apostle Peter's remark about the world-wide flood in the days
of Noah,

"First of all you must understand this, that scoffers
will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own
passions and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued
as they were from the beginning of creation.' They deliberately
ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long
ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water,
through which the world that then existed was deluged with water
and perished.

"But by the same word the heavens and earth that now
exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day
of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore
this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow
about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward
you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the
elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works
that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are
thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in
lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the
coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be
kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!"
(2 Peter 3:3-12)

Whether we like it that way or not, arguments about the age
of the universe may be irreconcilable. There is evidence both
for a recent creation, and there is also evidence for an ancient
universe. It is our stereotypical thinking about the nature of
time that causes us the problem. We view time as an absolute,
and as a single dimension measured by a fixed master clock. In
reality time is multidimensional and we are trapped in one-dimensional
linear time (because of the fall). We are unable to see the broader
perspective of eternity. Our vision is too narrow and needs some
stretching.

The Old Testament View of Time

The Hebrew concept of time found in the Old Testament is concerned
more with the quality of time as it relates to hail, rain,
summer, and harvest or to "evil days" or "prosperous
times." Clock or calendar time certainly is tracked in the
Old Testament. Believing Jews as well as Christians believe the
Old Testament is an accurate account of actual historical events
and real people. The Hebrew calendar and clock are based on a
lunar calendar. The "day" (yom) is one rotation
of the earth on its axis, the month is one revolution of the moon
about the earth, and the year the time required for the earth
to travel around the sun. The Jewish year, as defined in the Old
Testament, was divided into feasts and festivals marking the seasons
of an agricultural society.

Gregorian

Hebrew

Muslim

Month

No. Days

Month

No. Days

Month

No. Days

January

31

Tishri

30

Muharram

30

February

28
(29)

Heshvan

29
(30)

Safar

29

March

31

Kislev

29
(30)

Rabi'
I

30

April

30

Tebet

29

Rabi'
II

29

May

31

Shebat

30

Jumada
I

30

June

30

Adar

29
(30)

Jumada
II

29

July

31

Nisan

30

Rajab

30

August

31

Iyar

29

Sha'aban

29

September

30

Sivan

30

Ramadhan

30

October

31

Tammuz

29

Shawwal

29

November

30

Ab

30

Dhul
Qa'ada

30

December

31

Elul

29

Dhul
Hijja

29
(30)

The Old Testament teaches by means of stories, by personal
examples from the lives of individuals, and by case histories
of God's dealings with men and angels. Scripture uses poetic images,
dreams, visions and providential arrangements of circumstances
to indicate God's invisible workings in human affairs from behind
the scenes of history. The Hebrew year cycles around seed time
and harvest and commemorative feasts and festivals. These call
to mind the redemptive deeds of God and his blessings upon his
chosen people Israel.

The feasts of Israel have great symbolic import both for the
nation of Israel and for the church. Many details concerning these
feasts are given in the Torah,

The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel,
The appointed feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim as
holy convocations, my appointed feasts, are these. Six days shall
work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest,
a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to
the LORD in all your dwellings. "These are the appointed
feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim
at the time appointed for them.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in
the evening, is the LORD's passover. And on the fifteenth day
of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD;
seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you
shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.
But you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD seven days;
on the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious
work."

And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel,
When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest,
you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, that
you may find acceptance; on the morrow after the sabbath the
priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf,
you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt
offering to the LORD. And the cereal offering with it shall be
two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, to be offered
by fire to the LORD, a pleasing odor; and the drink offering
with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat
neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day,
until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute
for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

"And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath,
from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering;
seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the morrow
after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering
of new grain to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwellings
two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah;
they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven,
as first fruits to the LORD. And you shall present with the bread
seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one young bull, and
two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their
cereal offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire,
a pleasing odor to the LORD. And you shall offer one male goat
for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice
of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread
of the first fruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with
the two lambs; they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
And you shall make proclamation on the same day; you shall hold
a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work: it is a statute
for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. "And
when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your
field to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings
after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for
the stranger: I am the LORD your God."

And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel,
In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall
observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast
of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work;
and you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD."
And the LORD said to Moses, "On the tenth day of this seventh
month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of
holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present
an offering by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on
this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement
for you before the LORD your God. For whoever is not afflicted
on this same day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever
does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from
among his people. You shall do no work: it is a statute for ever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be
to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves;
on the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening
to evening shall you keep your sabbath."

And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel,
On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days
is the feast of booths to the LORD. On the first day shall be
a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. Seven days
you shall present offerings by fire to the LORD; on the eighth
day you shall hold a holy convocation and present an offering
by fire to the LORD; it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no
laborious work. "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD,
which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting
to the LORD offerings by fire, burnt offerings and cereal offerings,
sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day; besides
the sabbaths of the LORD, and besides your gifts, and besides
all your votive offerings, and besides all your freewill offerings,
which you give to the LORD.

"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you
have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the
feast of the LORD seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn
rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall
take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of
palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook;
and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. You
shall keep it as a feast to the LORD seven days in the year;
it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; you shall
keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven
days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that
your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell
in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am
the LORD your God." Thus Moses declared to the people of
Israel the appointed feasts of the LORD. (Leviticus 23)

The Hebrew Concept of Time

by Ronnie Littlejohn

I KNOW we have all been struck by the importance
of time and by its elusive, puzzling character. We wonder whether
we will have "enough time" to do everything we want
to do with our lives. And we complain that time "drags by"
when we are bored. Myth and poetry often personify time. The
figure of Father Time is familiar to us.

When early philosophers asked about time,
they sensed that it had something to do with change. But how
can something change? How can something be one way at one time
and some other way at another time, yet still be the same time?
They wondered whether the past could be changed or the future
predicted. They even speculated about time travel in which one
might visit the past or the future.

The Book of Ecclesiastes is unique among books
of the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, in presenting
anything like a direct statement on time (Eccl. 3:1-8). But though
this familiar passage says there is a season and a time for everything
under heaven, it certainly does not tell us what the nature of
time is; nor does it respond to the other questions philosophers
in Western history have advanced.

Why is this? The answer lies in a deep difference
between the way the Hebrews understood time and the way the Greeks
thought about it. The Hebrew mind thought in concrete terms and
did not engage in the sort of abstract speculation we know so
well from the Greeks. Just as the Hebrews did not speculate about
famous Greek questions such as What is truth? or What is justice?
neither did they offer arguments or theories about the question
What is time?

Understanding the Hebrew view of time requires
that we do some detective work. Since there is no passage in
the Old Testament that speaks about time, we must find out what
the Hebrews thought about time by taking a more indirect approach.

When we study the Old Testament, we find that
time is derivative for the Hebrews. That is, the understanding
of time in the Old Testament came from how it described the events
of human life and God's interaction with people. For example,
time was measured from harvest and agricultural occurrences.
Ruth and Naomi arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley
harvest (Ruth 1:22). Or, time was referencedto the sacred
events of God's interaction in Israel's history. Time was related
to an event that took place and how that event was related to
something else that had occurred. Time was not an abstract something
over and above events. Herein lay the basic difference between
the Hebrews and the Greeks.

This difference may be seen by correcting
our language. The Greeks might say, "Time is the medium
for God's saving acts." The Hebrews might say, "Time
is the sequence of God's saving acts." For the Hebrews,
there was no time that existed as a substance or force or dimension,
as the Greek sentence implies. There were only real events that
occurred, and men measured and marked life by their relationships
to these. Unlike a modern American, a Hebrew would not say, "I
don't have enough time" as though time were like so many
coins in a pocket or so much liquid in a glass. Hebrews did not
engage in discussions about whether time really existed or if
they could "feel" time. The reason is clear. Time was
not a thing or object for the Hebrews of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament has no general word for
"time" in the abstract sense at all. Neither does it
have special terms for past, present, and future. The most common
word for "time" means the moment or point at which
something happened, or will happen, for example, "Behold,
about this time tomorrow, I will send a very heavy hail"
(Ex. 9:18, NASB).

We cannot understand the Hebrew notion of
time if we carry over our Western scientific or philosophical
interpretations and questions. The Hebrews simply did not ask
the same questions or make the sort of speculations the heirs
to the Greeks advanced.

Actually, the Greek notion of time still leads
us down many philosophical dead ends and into many practical
problems as well. Time has been the subject of some real arguments
lately. Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge cosmologist, posed a paradox
when he entitled his best-selling book A Brief History of
Time. By definition, the word history refers to something
that has endured for some period in time. This implies that time
has endured in time, which has endured in time, which has endured
in time, and so on. This is going down a dead end. Such a paradox
would not occur to the Hebrews because, for them, things did
not happen "in time." Things happened and the happenings
were time.

Here is another example. The Hebrews did not
speculate about duration--as in How long is the present? Many
Western philosophers out of the Greek tradition found this question
troubling. It occupied philosophers from Augustine to Henri Bergson.
But the Hebrews avoided such fruitless speculations even though
they definitely used temporal concepts. First Kings 11:4 refers
to the time "when Solomon was old," but the writer
did not wonder about when it was that Solomon started to become
old, or at what point he became old, as though he was not
old the day previous and then suddenly he was old. The Hebrews
were not interested in all this theorizing. I do not mean that
this lack was a deficiency, only that it was a difference. We
certainly should not think that the Hebrew idea of time is necessarily
inferior to the Greek simply because the Greek was more concrete.

Another way of seeing this difference is to
notice that the Hebrews developed no idea of eternity as timelessness.
This was a Greek notion. The Hebrews had no idea that there could
be life and experience without time. For them, life was time,
or better "to live was time." There was no time where
there were no life events, and no life events where there was
no time. In the Old Testament, life was humanity's form of existence
(Job 1:21; Ps. 90:3-12) and this was time.

One could characterize the difference between
how the Hebrews understood time and how we do by saying that
time for us is "chronological" and time for them was
"qualitative.' In the Old Testament, events and persons
were differentiated and arranged, not by their position in chronological
sequence to each other, but according to the impact of their
occurrence.

The Hebrews were impressed by the weightiness
or significance of things and people, not by how many ticks on
a clock went by while doing something. This explains why when
scholars study the Old Testament, matters that are revealed by
their research to be widely separated with reference to time
(our definition) can, if their content coincides, be identified
and regarded as simultaneous by the Old Testament (because of
their view of time). The worshiper experienced past acts of salvation,
such as the exodus, as contemporary and happening right then,
even if the exodus occurred in the past.

Our perception of the passage of time can
change with the blink of an eye. Time stands still; time flies.
Time drags on. Where did the time go? I just need a little more
time! We had a great time! If only I had the time

There is a growing sense in modern America
that we are losing time. How can we take back control over time?
Possibly paying attention to the Hebraic concept of time might
be a way for us to regain control. For example, we sometimes
notice the difference between spending too much time making a
living (paid employment, household chores, personal maintenance)
and not taking time for living. But for the Hebrews, the way
welive (making a living) is time itself. We may only
choose how we live or how we "time." So, we must be
careful how we live.

One of our major problems in modem America
is that we are too busy spending time on unimportant things and
events and we have become too busy for the truly important, but
not necessarily urgent, matters in life. For example, while conversing
with a loved one, we will quickly answer the telephone and spend
several minutes on the call even though the call may be totally
unimportant. The perceived urgency of a ringing phone overrides
the more important activity that does not have a need for urgency
attached. When we engage in this kind of behavior, we are showing
what we think really matters. We could improve life if we change
our paradigm of time. But how can we?

Time for the Hebrews was about effort and
achievement People did things. They wrote, played, traveled,
slept, dreamed, performed ceremonies, went to war, and prayed.
God did things too. Time consisted of the story of these events,
and it had no existence beyond these. To make the most of time
probably meant something like living your life so that others
mark their lives and tell their stories in reference to your
actions. In the Hebrew mind, the real question was not, "What
is the best use of my time right now?" but rather, "What
is the best use of my life right now?"

The Old Testament gives us a record of patriarchs and races,
nations and kings. It is a selective record narrowing down to
focus on the bloodline leading to the Messiah. Israel is at stage
center, all directions are measured from Jerusalem, and the relationship
between the Israelites and their God determines their prosperity
or adversity in the land (eretz yisrael). The historical
record of the Old Testament reveals national deterioration and
repeated failures by men, but persistent, gracious intervention
by God who sovereignly works out His grand strategy down through
the ages. Israel typifies God's dealings with the nations. From
Israel the Messiah has already come once, and through Israel will
come the ultimate salvation of the nations when Messiah returns.

The Old Testament does not often speak at all about the affairs
of other nations unless they impinge on events concerning Israel.
Little is said about earthquakes, natural disasters, wars, the
rise and fall of empires and nations, storms, or cosmic events---unless
such happenings relate directly to Israel. In addition, the purpose
of the Biblical record is mostly moral and ethical. Because He
is a personal God who makes covenants, Yahweh is evidently much
more interested in helping men to know Him and to understand themselves
than He is in teaching us details of science or all the fine points
of history.

Concerning the Old Testament, Paul plainly says in First Corinthians,
10:11, that "These things happened to them (to the Old Testament
fathers) as types, but they were written down for our instruction,
upon whom the end of the ages has come." In his letter to
Romans, (15:4), Paul also wrote, "Whatever things were written
in former times were written for our instruction, that through
patience and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope."

Interruptions in Time Recorded in the Bible

The Hebrew language has no verb tenses in the usual sense familiar
to us who speak English. In the Jewish way of thinking, the quality
of an event or happening becomes more important than the minutes
or hours (the measure) the event occupies in our familiar four
dimensions of length, width, height and time.

For example, in the Old Testament there is Joshua's "long
day," (which occurred about 1420 BC). On that day, the sun
conveniently stood still for about a whole day, so Joshua could
finish an important battle against the Amorites. (The battle is
described in Joshua Chapter 10.) The LORD also conveniently arranged
an exceptionally heavy hailstorm at the same time, suggesting
that something radical happened to the earth's normal weather
patterns at the same time. What actually took place in nature
would be, to us, of enormous scientific importance to learn more
about. However, the Bible makes the stopping of the earth's rotation
on its axis and the fall of enormous, deadly hailstones incidental
to the main purpose of the narrative which was recorded to show
how God can use supernatural means to deliver His people. Conceiving
in the mind the possibility that God actually stopped the earth's
rotation and coordinated simultaneously all the forces and effects
that would have been accompanied such a happening staggers the
imagination---we simply don't know what actually happened except
that the record says the length of one particular day was stretched
by divine intervention.

Some day perhaps we will discover some supporting evidence
for an unusual historic event such as a large meteor striking
the earth, or a great volcanic explosion, or a close-passage of
the planet Mars, which would correlate conclusively with Joshua's
Long Day. The idea that God should interrupt the normal flow of
time for a moral reason may strike us as "unreasonable,"
and, of course, explaining how He does it, (the laws of physics
being what they are), is not an easy task. Critics have felt the
earth would fly apart instantly if its rotation were ever stopped
or even slowed. But this assumes that God lacks sufficient power
to coordinate and control all related forces such as tides and
stresses in the crust.

About 714 BC King Hezekiah faced the crisis of early death
and asked God for help, (2 Kings 20). He granted the king fifteen
more years of life. As a sign, God caused the sun dial in the
palace to move backwards "ten steps." Perhaps the reversed
motion of the sun dial was caused by some sort of wobble in the
earth's rotation? Who knows? God doesn't bother to tell us, apparently
it isn't important for us to know how it happened.

The Hebrew idea of continuous present tense is found in the
covenant name of God (one of many names for God in the
OT). This is the God who revealed Himself to Moses at the burning
bush in Sinai saying, "I am Who I am. Tell Pharaoh, 'I AM'
has sent you." This could be translated equally well as "I
Will be Who I Will Be." The name YHWH (Yahweh, or Jehovah)
is simply derived from the verb "to be." God is the
great "I AM" in the sense that each of us is a little
"i am." In reading the Gospel of John it is helpful
to note that Jesus used the term "I am" a number of
times in the sense of the meaning of Yahweh. For instance He said,
"...before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58) Jesus was
much more aware of the eternal dimension than we are. He dwelt
in eternity in some sense the whole time he was present on earth
as the Man Christ Jesus. Thus, some of the accomplishments by
Jesus at points in time while He was on earth sent ripples into
eternity which changed both the past and the future! As God is
eternal and outside of time, so our human spirits are also eternal.
However, our bodies are fallen, subject to death, and not yet
redeemed. It is the fact that our spirits live in bodies that
places us in contact with the physical world and limits our experience
of time.

To illustrate how the verb tenses in English can be changed
from past to future as far as Hebrew is concerned, consider the
prayer of Habakkuk in Habakkuk Chapter 3,

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
O LORD, I have heard the report of thee, and thy work, O LORD,
do I fear. In the midst of the years renew it; in the midst of
the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. God came from
Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the
heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Selah His brightness
was like the light, rays flashed from his hand; and there he
veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed
close behind. 6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and
shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered,
the everlasting hills sank low. His ways were as of old. I saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of
Midian did tremble. Was thy wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
Was thy anger against the rivers, or thy indignation against
the sea, when thou didst ride upon thy horses, upon thy chariot
of victory? Thou didst strip the sheath from thy bow, and put
the arrows to the string. Selah Thou didst cleave the earth with
rivers. The mountains saw thee, and writhed; the raging waters
swept on; the deep gave forth its voice, it lifted its hands
on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation at
the light of thine arrows as they sped, at the flash of thy glittering
spear. Thou didst bestride the earth in fury, thou didst trample
the nations in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of
thy people, for the salvation of thy anointed. Thou didst crush
the head of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
Thou didst pierce with thy shafts the head of his warriors, who
came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour
the poor in secret. Thou didst trample the sea with thy horses,
the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles, my
lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones, my
steps totter beneath me. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree do not
blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive
fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from
the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice
in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the
Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like hinds' feet, he makes
me tread upon my high places.

This passage can be read either as a record of God's great
and mighty deeds in the past, which the prophet recalls---or the
passage can be read as predictive of God's mighty acts in the
future. Either past or future meanings are correct. God has
delivered his people Israel by great acts in history on their
behalf. And, God will deliver Israel in the future by even
greater deeds and mighty works. In any case, there is reason for
God's people to hope for their salvation in those times when things
get worse before they get better. Habakkuk lived in one of those
times when there is little on the immediate horizon to give one
hope.

Subjective Time

Various dimensions of time (which we usually don't stop and
think about) are known to us in our daily experience. First, there
is subjective time, which is the appearance of time to
our sense of consciousness. Subjective time cannot be measured
by a stop watch, but this type of time varies over wide limits.
Sometimes we perceive a sequence of events around us as happening
in a flash. Sometimes time seems to drag on "forever"---while
the clock on the wall may tick off only minutes. Many of us remember
how time appeared to move very slowly during childhood. A single
summer day seemed to last forever, and the interval between Christmases
and school vacations was an "eternity." Later in life,
some of us look back and see that decades have passed almost as
if they were but months. Carl Jung noted that in the second half
of life it seemed as if all the events in the past are equidistant
from the present. An event that took place 40 years ago may flash
back into our consciousness as if it had happened yesterday. In
sudden accidents some have reported that their whole lives flashed
before their eyes in great detail, in a what was really only a
few seconds or less on the clock. When we dream at night what
seems to be many hours of time is shown by REM (Rapid Eye Movement)
sleep patterns to be only minutes of elapsed time. When we are
bored not only does time drag on with seemingly endless monotony,
the "quality" of our conscious experience is low. On
the other hand when life is exciting and fulfilling, the forward
movement of time is more obvious and the "quality" of
the moment is greatly magnified. I have come to believe that subjective
time has been greatly affected (negatively) by the fall of man.
Therefore for God's people heaven will not only be life that last
forever, it will also be life of immensely restored quality and
enjoyment.

God's final judgment of all of us will no doubt reveal that
what we considered important and precious was often rubbish in
the eyes of God. Conversely, small forgotten moments we thought
nothing of may be elevated and rewarded when God's records showed
we uttered a helpful word of comfort to someone in need, or gave
aid from a right motive.

Biological time has to do with wildlife migratory patterns,
animal hibernation, biorhythms, jet lag, circadian (24-hour) patterns
and menstrual cycles---numerous phenomena in nature that are loosely
coupled to dynamical time (that is, to months and seasons). Although
such biological time clocks are mysterious and still not well
understood, they are probably closer to the way God keeps time,
if we remember that the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar
month, the cycle of harvest, and the motion of the earth, moon,
planets, and stars. Seen in this light, the scientist's way of
keeping time---with precision quartz clocks and atomic resonators
is actually somewhat arbitrary and less "absolute" than
God's heavenly clocks and calendars.

Linear Time and Cyclical Time

The Hebrew view of time also includes the concept that time
moves from event to event in a line---not a straight line, to
be sure, but towards a goal. The goal is always the future, yet
the goal intended by God is always to be fulfilled in history.
Bible prophecies frequently have both an immediate and a long-term
fulfillment, for example. In the Bible, sins are seen to have
consequences that follow inevitably, moral choices lead to measurable
results for good or for ill, and history proceeds towards the
definite outworking purposes of God.

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the
gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction,
and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and
the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are
few." (Matthew 7:14, 15)

A consummation of the ages lies ahead, for which all else has
been but a shadowy preparation. In both ancient Greek culture,
(among the Pythagoreans, Stoics and Neoplatonists), and in Hindu
culture (especially during the Vedic period, 1500-600 BC), one
runs onto the concept of circular, or cyclical time. This is sometimes
symbolized by the uroboros, the snake chasing his own tail.
In this view of time, the beginning leads back around to the end,
and the cycle starts all over again. The Babylonians, ancient
Chinese, Aztecs, Mayans, and the Norse had cyclical calendars.

In pantheistic religious systems of thought the universe is
often depicted as going through great long epochs of rebirth,
growth, decay, and destruction. The Hindu cycles, for example,
range from 360 human years, to 300 trillion years (which is the
lifetime of the gods before their rebirth). Reincarnation---which
has no basis in the Bible at all (see Hebrews 9:27)---springs
from such an Eastern pantheistic point of view. Augustine was
among the first to insist on linear time as opposed to cyclical,
since he observed that many important events in the Bible clearly
happened one time only. Since clocks were not well-developed until
the 14th Century, it was perhaps easier for the ancients to imagine
events in history as recurring since the four seasons and patterns
of the stars in the heavens were cyclical.

The Bible depicts the human race as having a definite clear
beginning, a history which has been accurately recorded by God,
and an approaching day of judgment when all men will be evaluated
justly by their Creator. The fact that "books are to be opened"
on judgment day means God keeps track of detail (by means of his
"recording angels")---even if we do not ourselves keep
good record books. God even pays attention to the numbering of
the hairs on our heads. He will see to it that truth and justice
ultimately prevail no matter how grim things seem to us at the
moment (1 Cor. 4:5). A good example of the work of a recording
angel is to be found in Ezekiel 9:2ff.

Dynamical Time and Atomic Time

The "clock" for measuring time given us in the Bible
can be called "dynamical time" because this clock is
based on the motion of the earth on its axis (defining the day),
the period of the moon as it revolves around the earth establishing
the lunar month (used in the Jewish calendar), and the time it
takes for the earth to make one trip around the sun, which defines
the year. Planetary alignments, constellations, comets, meteors,
special stars, and other events in the heavens are ordained by
God for marking out unusual events. This time-keeping mechanism
which relies, essentially, on Newton's law of gravity is described
in Genesis One as something God put into place on the Fourth Day
of creation:

"And God said, 'Let there be lights [Hebrew ma'or]
in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the
night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days
and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens
to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. And God made the
two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the
lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God
set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the
earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate
the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And
there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."
(Genesis 1:14-19)

Most common clocks keep dynamical time. But also in common
use today are "atomic clocks." In fact our present precision
time standards are set to atomic time rather than a dynamical
time standard. Atomic time would be locked in step with dynamical
time if the velocity of light were an absolute, fixed constant.
As discussed elsewhere, (see On The Constancy
of the Speed of Light), a careful statistical analysis of
all the measured values of the velocity of light, c, shows that
c has decreased during the past 300 years, and thus atomic clocks
have slowed down with respect to dynamical clocks. When the velocity
of light first began to be measured it appears that the annual
decrease in velocity was very rapid. In fact it has been suggested
that the initial value of c when the universe was new may have
been as much as one to ten million times higher than its present
value.

It is not possible for c to be a variable without forcing a
select group of other constants to also vary. Otherwise the universe
would be unstable and serious inconsistencies would occur in many
equations of physics. The evidence available at the present time
suggests that c, Planck's constant h, the rest mass of the electron
in the atomic frame of reference, and radio-active decay rates
are not fixed. The gravitational constant G is fixed, as is macroscopic
mass and most other physical properties affecting life on earth,
however. It seems probable that the reason c has decreased is
because of an increasing permeability of free space (one of the
"metric" properties of space). This would result, for
example, from a shrinkage of the original universe after it was
"stretched out" by God to its maximum diameter on the
Second Day of creation.

The observed decrease in the velocity of light originally studied
in detail by Australian scientists Barry Setterfield and Trevor
Norman follows a steeply decaying curve leveling off to nearly
zero change in recent years. Their model is shown below.

Since it is quite possible that the velocity of light has decreased
by a factor of perhaps 10 million or more, the long geological
ages now in vogue, which follow the atomic clock, would actually
be compressed by this amount according the dynamical time scale
of ordinary history.

Time's Arrow in Physics

Many physical phenomena can be described very satisfactorily
by mathematical equations. Usually these (differential) equations
involve mass or similar measurable properties of the physical
world, and the dimensions of length, width, height and time. From
a strictly mathematical point of view it does not matter if time
is positive or negative---most equations of physics are time reversible.

However it is not so in real life, because of something which
is called "Time's Arrow." The real world we live in
is governed by an important principle known as the Second Law
of Thermodynamics. The Second Law can be stated in several forms,
but basically it refers to the tendency of things to rot, rust,
decay and fall apart with the passage of time. As we use energy,
the total amount of available energy available to do additional
work decreases inexorably. Orderly systems proceed to break-down
in the direction of chaos, and the "information content"
of things decreases with the passage of time. Both outside energy
and outside organizing intelligence are required to bring order
out of chaos.

In the case of living organisms, it is the genetic code which
instructs cells to build themselves into orderly organisms, but
this is accomplished at the expense of an overall decrease in
the total available energy of the universe.

In physics this principle is often stated as "Entropy
always increases." Entropy is a measure of the unavailable
energy in a system or the state of disorder. Technically speaking
this law of entropy applies to what is known as "closed systems."
However if a sufficiently large circle is drawn around most any
system one can think of the law applies without exception. The
earth and its atmosphere do not comprise a thermodynamically closed
system because of energy input from the sun, for example. However
by drawing a circle around the solar system, one has a closed
system.

Incidentally it can be shown that energy from the sun alone
is not sufficient to decrease the overall entropy of earth or
to drive biological organisms in the direction of increasing complexity.
(See for instance, Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley and Roger
L. Olsen, The Mystery of Life's Origin (Philosophical
Library; New York, 1984). This point is widely misunderstand among
secular scientists today. It is wrongly taught that energy inputs
alone are sufficient for living systems to self-organize out of
simple molecules, given enough time. The above authors, and other
scientists as well, have shown by careful calculation that programming
information from a source outside a system is required, in addition
to energy, for the molecules of life and living cells to be assembled.

In conclusion, physical processes known to science require
that time move from the past through the present and into the
future irreversibly. "Linear," "one-dimensional"
time is the time frame of the physics of the macroscopic world.
This view of time is consistent with the progression of the ages
in the Bible. See also: The Mystery of Time's
Arrow

Time in the New Testament

The New Testament appeals to reason, to the conscience, and
to the rational mind to communicate the same truths that are found
in the Old Testament in story form. Someone has suggested that
the Old Testament appeals to the right side of the brain and the
New, to the left side. Bible teacher and former corporate executive
and scientist Chuck Missler often says,

"The New Testament is in the Old Concealed,
and The Old Testament is in the New Revealed."

The basic message of God's love and actions in history is really
the same, but it is presented in two differing formats in the
two halves of Scripture. The New Testament message is addressed
not only to the Jews but to the pagans, the Goyim, the entire
non-Jewish world. When the New Testament was written down in the
First Century, AD, Greek and Roman culture and government dominated
much of the ancient world. The original language now changed between
the two Testaments without warning from Hebrew to Koine Greek.

The Greek language of the New Testament refers to time as measured
in chronos and kairos---times and seasons. The meanings
of the Greek New Testament words for times and seasons add more
to an understanding of the complex nature of time in our universe.
Chronos (Strong's Concordance Number 5550) means quantity of time,
space of time, duration, succession of moments, length of time,
or a bounded period of time. To understand this word, it is helpful
to read the passages of the New Testament where chronos is used.
These include Matthew 2:7, Luke 4:5; 8:27; 20:9, Acts 20:18, Romans
16:25, and Mark 2:19. Kairos refers to the quality of time or
season, the epoch characterized by certain events, the decisive
quality of happening, an opportune time, or a fortuitous moment.

The renowned Bible scholar Archbishop Trench wrote,

"The 'seasons' are the critical epoch-making periods
foreordained of God, when all that has been slowly, and often
without observation, ripening through long ages is mature and
comes to birth in grand decisive events, which constitute at
once the close of one period and the commencement of another.
Such, for example, was the passing away of the old Jewish dispensation;
such, again, the recognition of Christianity as the religion
of the Roman Empire; such the conversion of those outside; such
the great revival which went along with the first institution
of the Mendicant Orders; such, by still better right, the Reformation;
such, above all others, the second coming of the Lord in glory."

Kairos (Strong's Concordance Number 2540) is used in
such passages as Romans 5:6, Galatians 6:10, Matthew 13:34, 26:18,
Revelation 12:12, I Peter 1:11, and Luke 4:13. In the New Testament
we have expressions like "times of refreshing" (Acts
3:19), "times of ignorance" (Acts 17:30), and "the
times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24).

Greek also uses the word aion for age, usually referring
to an indefinite period of time marked by certain moral or spiritual
characteristics. The plural aionios, denotes the eternal
or everlasting in the New Testament. For example "life eternal"
(aionios zoe) in John 17:3 refers to an ever-increasing
knowledge of God. This word and its derivatives and compounds
is very common in the New Testament and can be searched by looking
up Strong's Concordance Numbers 165 and 166.

Times of Stress

To illustrate the importance the Bible places on the content
and quality of an interval of time within history, the expression
"times of stress" occurs in one of the most interesting
passages in the New Testament, Paul's second letter to Timothy
3:1-5. Our understanding of the message is enriched by looking
up the individual Greek words in this passage in a lexicon. The
passage in question reads as follows:

"But understand this; that in the
last times there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers
of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient
to parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers,
profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen
with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding
the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such
people."

An analysis of the details of this passage will be found in
a separate discussion, Times of Stress

The "Last Days"

The entire New Testament uses the term "last days"
to refer to the entire 2000 year interval between the first and
second advents of Christ. Christ was born "late" in
history as God measures time---see Galatians 4:4. He will return
after recurring cycles of stress have plagued mankind. These cycles
will come with repeated frequency and intensity as the age draws
to a close-cycles compared in Scripture to the birth pangs of
a women about to give birth to a child. They will also be less
and less local and more and more global. For example, only in
our century have we had "World" Wars. The present world
economy is another example. A recession in one nation these days
affects the world economy creating a crisis not easily corrected
by any individual sovereign nation.

It is not possible for us to anticipate where and when the
next "time of stress" will befall us, nor can we tell
what form it will take. Thus, we cannot plan ahead very well,
so we must take one day at a time as Jesus advised us in the Sermon
on the Mount, "...Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
(Matthew 6:34) (KJV) During these times of stress, the real character
of human beings surfaces, raw, ugly sores open in society, and
the situation becomes dangerous and violent. Astrologers explain
that such times are at least partially caused by "unfortunate"
aspects and alignments of the planets.

The term "the Day of the Lord" appears frequently
in the Bible. The Day of the Lord is an extended period of time,
not just a 24-hour day, and is to be contrasted with the times
in which we now live which we might call "the Day of man,"
or "man's day." See The Day of
the Lord. For a chart of Bible prophecy and the end of the
age see Chart of the End of the Age.

The Mysterious Flow of Time

Although time is measured in history in terms of clocks and
calendars, it is also articulated into seasons. These periods
of time bend, stretch, and unfold as God periodically moves the
course of history in a different direction. Often, at the last
minute, God postpones the final consummation of events, withdraws
impending judgments, or even blesses us unexpectedly just when
it seems to us that we are at a point of no return in our personal
lives or when we think the sky is about to fall on our heads bringing
an end to the world as we know it.

God is outside of time. He is an eternally self-existing, self-defining,
living Being. Since he created time as we know it, we can think
of past, present, and future are eternally present before His
eyes.

God's actions in eternity can affect past, present,
and future (as experienced by mankind), simultaneously. A certain
action of God completed in the past can have on-going and lasting
results. Other activities of God, such as His expressions and
grace and mercy towards us all, continue day after day. Certain
events, such as the "appointed" hour we die or the Day
of Judgment, are fixed in the future, predetermined by God. Since
God is more concerned with the quality of time than the quantity
or measure of time, we can all expect to experience time differently
in eternity depending on the quality of our lives during our present
training on earth.

Since God is outside of time, past, present and future are
always present before Him. Consider the case of a sudden airplane
disaster where all the passengers and crew have but moments to
cry out to God in a hundred or more sudden, separate, desperate
prayers. God has all of eternity to hear even the shortest of
these prayers, to review all the lives and facts and His own timetables
for history---He knows every heart, every motive, all the facts
and He has all the time in the world to take a myriad of data
into consideration before answering or denying each one of those
prayers! He can take His time, all the time He needs, and yet
not fail to answer every one of these simultaneous prayers, each
with justice, compassion, and certitude. He does not need to make
split-second decisions as we do, He is never caught off guard,
and when He does act He can accomplish the impossible in a flash.
An example of this sudden and complete action by God will be in
the coming resurrection of the dead as described in First Corinthians,

"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall
be changed."

Some have attempted to estimate the time duration of a "twinkling
of the eye." It is surely no more than milliseconds in our
time frame.

There are many references in the Bible to "appointments"
on God's calendar indicating that there is a divine plan for the
ages in effect at all times. The age prior to the one in which
we now live carries the title "times of ignorance."
Speaking in Athens the Apostle Paul declared to the crowd,

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being
Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man,
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything,
since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
And he made from one [man, Adam] every nation of men to live
on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods
and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should
seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find
him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for `In him we live
and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have
said, `For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring,
we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver,
or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.

"The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now
he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed
a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by
a man whom he has appointed, [Jesus] and of this he has given
assurance to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts
17:24-31)

Time Disrupted by the Fall

The universe was created for man---in science this is called
the "anthropic principle." It is also evident from the
opening chapters of the Bible. An empty universe inhabited only
by God and the angels makes little sense to most of us. God does
not "need" a universe, nor does he need man to add to
His Being. He is fully sufficient and complete in all His attributes
so our creation adds nothing to His essential nature. The universe
was made as a home for man, and man was made for fellowship with
God (see Isaiah 45:18). Man was placed in charge of the creation
as Hebrews Chapter 2 recalls. God pronounced nature "good"
and valuable to Him before He placed man on earth. Intuitively
it is unattractive to imagine that the universe sat empty for
aeons before man arrived on the scene---as evolutionary thought
teaches was the case. According to Genesis, God proceeded to create
the universe step by step in an orderly way, and when He had the
ecosystem prepared, He made man (last of all) and placed him squarely
in the center of things to understand and to rule over what had
been created. [Man has since lost his dominion over the creation---but
that is another story. God has a restoration plan underway].

The notion of an originally upright, unflawed universe also
suggests that the moon and planets may have once been more beautiful,
more pristine, and more "inhabitable" than they are
now. I myself happen to believe that some sort of cosmic disaster
has already occurred throughout the solar system and that there
is ample evidence now of destructive forces at work in the physical
universe that were not put there by God. The Biblical view also
contradicts the notion that man is improving and society is advancing
morally and socially. Rather, it is the grace of God which makes
life bearable and prevents mankind from self-destruction.

The original creation was "good" (unmarred, flawless)
at the end of creation week. Then the angels fell and later man
fell. The fall of man resulted in a "curse" on the physical
world, a curse which has not yet been lifted. [Actually there
are at least five significant curses named in Genesis that effect
the world we live in today]. The fall of man and the fall of Satan
seems to have made fundamental changes in certain laws of physics
and biology as well. The nature of subjective time, i.e.,
the "quality" of time as we experience it has changed
since creation. Also, man in his present condition is constrained
to a rather limited "one-dimensional" time frame whereas
before the fall, our first parents enjoyed a multidimensional
quality of time much richer than we can even begin to imagine.

Before the fall, our first parents in their innocence and purity
were in a very real sense enjoying a quality of life moment by
moment that is unknown to us at the present time.

Incidentally the role of the angels in the government of the
physical universe as well as in the affairs of men is confirmed
by a verse in Hebrews,

"...For it was not to angels that God subjected the world
to come, of which we are speaking." (2:5)

The implication of this verse is the age we now live in is
governed by the angels---the age which is to come will not be
governed by angels, but by the redeemed of mankind who are in
Christ the Lord.

A Glimpse into Eternity

The Biblical view of time found in the New Testament is that
time in the heavenly places, that is in the spiritual world, is
multidimensional. For example, in the Book of the Revelation we
see scenes taking place on earth in human history and scenes in
the heavenly places going on at the same time. Time in heaven
apparently moves in the forward direction as it does on earth.
For example Revelation 8:1 describes a period of silence in heaven
lasting "about half an hour." But time in heaven has
a quality and a pace different from time on earth.

A good example of an event occurring in "eternity"
is found in the Gospels: one day Jesus stepped up to the top of
Mount Mizar, a minor peak on the slopes of Mount Hermon, above
Banias (ancient Caesarea Philippi) in northern Israel and was
transfigured before His frightened disciples, Peter, James, and
John. Appearing with Him (about 30 AD) were Moses (from about
1400 BC) and Elijah, (who was translated into heaven without seeing
death about 850 BC). All were alive and well, as if contemporaries,
oblivious to the years that had separated them by our way of reckoning
time.

This incident (recorded in Luke 9:28-36; Matthew 17:1-8; and
Mark 9:2-8) shows that all the usual rules and constraints of
time (as we commonly think of them) were momentarily lifted. Thus,
it was not only possible for men from ancient times to appear
alive in the presence of the disciples of Jesus, but also for
Jesus to assume His glorified body all at the same "time."
Luke's account is as follows:

"And he said to all, 'If any man would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses
his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit
a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the
Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory
of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there
are some standing here who will not taste death before they see
the kingdom of God.'

"Now about eight days after these sayings he took with
him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to
pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance
was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white. And behold,
two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory
and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep,
and when they wakened they saw his glory and the two men who
stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said
to Jesus, 'Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three
booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah'---not
knowing what he said. As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed
them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice
came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen
to him!' And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything
of what they had seen." (Luke 9:23-36)

Another example of the multiple dimensions of time and eternity
will be helpful to the reader. Consider the various time frames
that are involved in the writing, printing, and reading of a book,
for example, a mystery novel. Perhaps the author took a year to
write the manuscript, but drew from many years of personal experience
and from his own reading of history. Suppose six months elapse
before the book is on the market and reaches the reader. The reader
then begins the book, and after a period time of intermittent
reading, finishes it. (The reader can even skip ahead to the end,
if he wishes, to see how it all turns out). Internal to the book
is the time frame of the story, which may include flashbacks in
the lives of some of the characters. After reading the book, it
goes on the library shelf, but the reader retains a summary version,
condensed in his memory. He is free to recall the book, or read
it again. In this example one can count half a dozen, or more,
different time frames all co-existing!

Time As Experienced in a Resurrection Body

After His resurrection, Jesus further demonstrated the capacities
of His resurrection body by appearing and disappearing at will
among His disciples, in the days between the resurrection and
the ascension. From such records in the Gospels, we can conclude
that resurrection bodies are equipped for multidimensional space
and time travel. Jesus ate food and could be touched and felt,
in His resurrection body. He did not return in a ghost-like, shadowy
form. In his two letters to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul
clarifies the nature of the resurrection. Physical death is the
point a believer steps out of the time frame of human history.
When a person leaves time and enters eternity. Once in eternity
one bypasses intermediate (future) times to arrive at the resurrection
at the exact same instant all other believers do, in fact "in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."

First note carefully the wording the Apostle uses in describing
the resurrection body as already in existence in eternity:

"For we know that if the earthly tent [Greek skenos
= "tent"] we live in is destroyed, we have [now] a
building [Greek: oikos = building] from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan,
and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting
it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this
tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but
that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may
be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very
thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So
we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home
in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith,
not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be
away from the body and at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians
5:1-5)

The resurrection of Christians who have died during the past
two thousand years immediately precedes the catching up of living
believers at a yet-future event called the "rapture of the
church" [see separate essays on the "appearing"
and the "coming" of the Lord]. This appearing [parousia]
of the Lord Jesus for His church is an event in eternity which
intrudes into our time frame at some particular date on God's
appointment calendar,

"But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning
those who are asleep, [died] that you may not grieve as others
do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those
who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by the word
of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming
of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,
with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet
of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are
alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always
be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

"But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have
no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know
well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
When people say, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction
will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child,
and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren,
for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons
of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake
and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who
get drunk are drunk at night. But, since we belong to the day,
let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined
us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might
live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one
another up, just as you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11)

In this passage three distinct events occur: (1) a great shout
from the Lord Jesus which summons the dead back to life, (2) the
Archangel's {Michael's}call to Israel, and the sound of a trumpet
to summon those believers alive at that moment of history. That
same trumpet and the immediate transformation of living Christians
at the rapture is described in 1 Corinthians 15:

"Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable
puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is
swallowed up in victory.' 'O death, where is thy victory? O death,
where is thy sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power
of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
(15:51-58)

In the experience of the Christian, one's personal death corresponds
exactly with the Second Coming of Christ, though this event will
also happen on earth at the definite date and time in recorded
human history. This is what Paul meant when he said to be absent
from the body was to be at home with the Lord, not as a spirit,
but in a resurrection body along with everyone else who knows
God. This can be seen at the Martyrdom of Stephen in the book
of Acts.

"Now when they heard these things they were enraged,
and they ground their teeth against him. But Stephen, full of
the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, 'Behold,
I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the
right hand of God.' But they cried out with a loud voice and
stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast
him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down
their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as
they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice,
'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And when he had said
this, he fell asleep." (Acts 7:56-8:2)

As Stephen died he saw heaven opened and Jesus standing
at the right hand of God. Throughout the New Testament Jesus is
ordinarily pictured as seated at the right hand of God.
Evidently He stands to receive His bride, the church, at the rapture.
Thus all Christians get to heaven at the same moment. In one sense,
then, heaven is now empty. There is no value in praying to the
Virgin Mary or St. Jude since they aren't there yet! But as will
be seen shortly, there is another sense in which all believers
are already in heaven.

Who is Presently in Heaven?

Not only has Jesus Christ been raised from the dead, He is
now seated in heaven at the right hand of God in a new resurrection
body. All authority and power in the universe has been placed
into His hands, (Matthew 28:18). Therefore heaven is certainly
not empty. The angels are there and the splendor and glory of
God is unchanged and undiminished.

"As I [Daniel] looked, thrones were placed and one that
was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery
flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued
and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court
sat in judgment, and the books were opened...I saw in the night
visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one
like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was
presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory
and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should
serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
(Daniel 7:9-14)

When an individual enters into a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ as Lord, he or she is immediately spiritually regenerated
and becomes identified with Jesus Christ in his death, burial
and resurrection. This is the meaning of baptism---being "placed
into" Christ, into the Body of Christ. Paul says in Romans,

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him
in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in
a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might
no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from
sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from
the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over
him." (Romans 6:3-9)

Paul elaborates on this in Ephesians,

"And you he made alive, when you were dead through the
trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course
of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among
these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following
the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were
dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him,
and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches
of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace
you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing,
it is the gift of God---not because of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk
in them." (Ephesians 2:1-11)

Although our spirits and souls are made new if we know Jesus
Christ personally, our bodies are not yet redeemed. It is our
present mortal physical bodies (connecting us by the five senses)
which link us to the "old creation." In spirit we already
have been "raised" from the dead, we are dwelling in
the heavenly places---we are already seated with Christ at the
right hand of God. If we had our resurrection bodies "put
on" instead of our old earth-tents, we would immediately
perceive that we all had arrived in heaven together. Hebrews Chapter
12 describes our present dwelling in heaven:

"For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing
fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of
a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that
no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure
the order that was given, 'If even a beast touches the mountain,
it shall be stoned.' Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that
Moses said, 'I tremble with fear.'

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable
angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born
who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks
more graciously than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse
him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused
him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we
reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth;
but now he has promised, 'Yet once more I will shake not only
the earth but also the heaven.' This phrase, 'Yet once more,'
indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been
made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore
let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence
and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:18-29)

So in one sense as all the above passages tell us, all believers
are presently dwelling in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
But in another sense the only man who is now in heaven is Jesus.
Mary is not there yet, nor Jude the half-brother of Jesus, nor
the Apostle Paul, nor my grandmother. The resurrection has not
yet taken place. And there is no "waiting room" where
our loved-ones are now in a holding pattern standing-by for heaven
either.

When the resurrection does occur we shall all arrive there
at exactly the same time. This is explained in more detail in
the appended sermon on Time and Eternity by Ray C. Stedman.

Rewards Beyond this Life

Eternal life---which is the free gift of God to all those who
receive Jesus Christ as Lord---is a kind of time dimension characterized
not only by endless duration, but by very high quality. God's
time has richness, variety, freedom from boredom and endless diversity.
Living in fellowship with Him who is Life is not only liberating
but exciting beyond the power of language to describe. Eternity
does not mean timelessness, except perhaps for those in hell.

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his
ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been
his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him that he might
be repaid?' For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory for ever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)

Notes and References

Note A. "God is neither time-bound nor space-bound,
for He existed before the Universe existed, before the
creation of space or matter or time. Einstein put the nature of
the relationship between these three realities this way:

If you don't take my words too seriously, I would say this:
if we assumed that all matter disappeared from the world, then
before relativity, one believed that space and time would
continue to exist in an empty world. But, according to
the Theory of Relativity, if matter and its motion disappeared,
there would no longer he any space or time [emphasis mine].

"Long before Einstein, Augustine * had perceived the real
equation of time with matter. He saw that space and matter are
co-existent, andhe held that God created time when He
created the Universe.

* Augustine, City of God, Bk. XI, chap.
6: "Beyond doubt, the World was not made in Time, but with
Time." As a matter of fact, the Jews themselves anticipated
Augustine, though with somewhat less precision and sophistication.
[See Louis Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, Phil., Jewish
PubI. Assoc. of Amer., 1955, Vol. V, p. 6, note 14, quoting from
Bereshith Rabbah 3:7 and Koheleth 3:11]. It is
also noted here that the Jewish philosopher, Philo, accepted
the view held by his contemporaries. He adopted the concept that
time came into being when the universe was created [see Philo,
On Creation, Vol. 1, Loeb classical Library, Harvard,
1971, p. 21].

"Time began with the creation of matter. Of God
Himself, Augustine said this: 'Thy years stand together at the
same time...Thy years are oneDay, and Thy day is not like
our sequence of days but is today.'" *

1. To establish an accurate calendar of events, the Chronology-History
Research Institute (PO Box 3043; Spencer, Iowa, 51301) is undertaking
computer dating of the Bible. This group has issued several important
books and publications and has a helpful newsletter, It's
About Time,.

2. A valuable compilation of more than forty calendars, ancient
and modern, is found in Frank Parise, ed., The Book of Calendars
(Facts on File; New York, 1982). The number of days in the year
in all ancient calendars was 360. This was changed in 701 BC for
reasons that are still disputed by Bible scholars. See Chuck Missler's
briefing package Signs in the Heavens available from
Koinonia House, PO Box D,
Couer d'Alene, Idaho 83816-0347. Chuck has an excellent briefing
package available on the Jewish Feast Days as well.

3. Among contemporary creationists, Donald E. Patten has written
a number of provocative books and articles on catastrophic happenings
in ancient times. See his The Biblical Flood and the Ice
Epoch (Pacific Meridien Press; Seattle, 1966); The
Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Catastrophes (ibid., 1973);
and Six Volumes of which he is the editor, A Symposium on
Creation (ibid., 1977). Patten is controversial and many
of his ideas have been disputed or challenged. Gerardus D. Bouw,
PhD., Geocentricity, (Association for Biblical Astronomy,
4527 Wetzel Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44109, 1992) discusses Joshua's
long day and other unusual events recorded in the Bible.

4. The late Arthur Custance wrote a series of scholarly "Doorway Papers" some
years ago that were later published by Zondervan Press (1976).
Some of his books relevant to this essay include Journey
out of Time, Time and Eternity,and Two Men Called
Adam, and The Seed of the Woman,. His entire library is
now online. Published originally by Doorway Publications, %Evelyn
M. White, 38 Elora Drive, Unit 41, Hamilton, Ontario, L9C 7L6,
Canada.

A wonderful classic book on God, time and eternity is Nathan R.
Wood, The Trinity in the Universe, 1978, Reprint,
Kregel Press, Grand Rapids, MI. Biblical concepts of Time and
Eternity are eloquently discussed by C.S. Lewis in his Mere
Christianity (Macmillan Publishing; New York, 1960); and
by Ray C. Stedman in Authentic Christianity (Multnomah
Press; Portland, 1975). The latter book is available from Discovery
Publications, 3505 Middlefield Road; Palo Alto, CA 94306. Ray
Stedman attributes much of his understanding to the scholarly
work of Dr. Arthur Custance.

5. Richard Morris's, Time's Arrow (Simon and Schuster;
New York, 1980), is a very good book on this subject. Morris includes
a good bibliography.

6. Kenneth Jon Rose, The Body in Time (John Wiley
and Sons, 1988) is a well-written book on biological clocks especially
as related to the human organism.

8. The following quote will introduce a very fine recent book
on science and religion:

'I AM'

There is an old Texas aphorism: 'Time is how God keeps things
from happening all at once.' Perhaps for God things do happen
all at once, and 'time' as we know it is only an approximate
description.

As long ago as the fourth and fifth centuries the Christian
philosopher Augustine of Hippo gave a great deal of thought and
prayer to the subject of time. Like Aristotle and Islamic natural
philosophers, Augustine concluded that time begins with the running
of the universe. He made a sharp cut between the things that
exist in time and space and what is outside time and Augustine
began with the question 'What was God doing before He created
Heaven and Earth?' and decided that the question has no meaning
because words such as 'before' and after' and 'then' can't apply
where time as we know it doesn't according to Augustine, time
as we know it is part and parcel of this creation, not something
that applies to God.

The timeless present tense in which Augustine proposed that
God exists is difficult to imagine or describe. Augustine wrote:
'Who shall lay hold upon the mind of man, that it may stand and
see that time with its past and future must be determined by
eternity, which stands and does not pass, which has in itself
no past or future.' Augustine doesn't say, you will notice, that
eternity lasts for ever, though that's how most of us think of
eternity. Eternity lasts no time at all. Eternity 'stands and
does not pass' and 'in eternity nothing passes but all is present.'

In this model of reality, you can't talk about a 'time' before
time was created, any more than you can talk about it Hawking's
no-boundary universe. There was never a 'time' time didn't exist.
'There can be no time apart from creation.. Let them cease to
talk such nonsense,' wrote Augustine.' What he proposed instead
of 'such nonsense' was that God, existing in an eternal present,
creates chronological time for the benefit our human minds and
existence.

What would it be like if events were not ordered in chronological
time? If God knows everything in the universe that ever happened
and ever will happen in the same way (except infinitely more
detail) that I know what's happening right now the room with
me, in what way would that affect God's power to affect this
universe? What meaning could cause and effect have in such a
setting? What would happen to 'predictability'? Where events
are not filed chronologically, is there some other filing system?
Those are questions we have no hope of answer but we can speculate
a little.

Our chronological framework forbids knowledge of the future.
That's a prescription one wouldn't have in a timeless situation.
It wouldn't be at all surprising to find God knowing the future---it
would all be NOW to God. That makes problems for us, because
it is difficult to think of ourselves as having free will if
someone knows the future and knows what we are going to decide.
However, I know what I did yesterday. I decided to push on this
chapter rather than to write some long-overdue letters. It would
never occur to me that this knowledge, which I have on Wednesday,
in any way obliged me to make that yesterday, on Tuesday. True,
I can't change my mind about it now. Is it my knowledge about
what I decided yesterday that makes it impossible for me to change
that now? Why necessarily conclude it is that?

We cannot assume it is knowledge of the past that robs us
of the ability to change it. Why should we assume that knowledge
of the future robs us of our ability to change the future? Why,
in any instance, should knowledge of an outcome determine that
outcome? In our framework of chronological time, knowing the
future would seem to determine the future, and certainly
the psychological situation of knowing and having free will at
the same time would not be one we could cope with---a good argument
for why that possibility isn't allowed in our creation. But why
should this necessarily hold for God in a regime where time as
we know it doesn't exist at all? It isn't difficult to imagine
a situation in which I have free will and God might know every
last detail of what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.
seventeenth-century Afghan writer expressed it, 'All the pages
not yet written He has read'---and yet I can write on them anything
I choose.

The biblical description of God's activity in the world makes
a great deal more sense if Augustine's model of time is the correct
one: God's ability, as described in the Old Testament, to plan
a period of thousands of years, taking into account all the spanners
that his Chosen People are going to throw into the works; the
blame that falls on Judas, though Judas' betrayal of Christ fulfills
prophecy; puzzling incidents in which Christ apparently overlooks
the fact that his disciples are constrained by chronological
point of view and has to re-explain in a way that make sense
to them; Christ's statement 'Before Abraham was born, I am,'
and all the incidents of prophecy, great and small. None of it
seems so bizarre if God is seeing it and intervening in the whole
of 'history' at the same instant, not constraining our free will
but taking advantage of our choices and mitigating the consequences.
The oddness from our point of view merely the oddness with which
this perfectly feasible activity was up in our chronological
time, where it doesn't mesh and we no vocabulary to describe
it.

We, of course, have no idea whether this is the way time works---or
the way God works. We do know that we can't yet understand time.
It remains one of the great mysteries. We suspect that chronological
arrow of time as we know it is a broken symmetry, because the
underlying laws of physics don't in general an arrow of time
themselves. With few exceptions, they are reversible. If a law
allows a sequence of events to occur, it also allows a time-reversed
version of the same sequence---the film run backward. Nevertheless,
in most of nature, events occur in a time-directed manner and
the film is never run backward. Once again, as in the case of
galaxy clusters, it's to determine whether what we observe is
really a broken symmetry or something more fundamental. The best
judgment sent indicates that chronological time is only a part
of a more fundamental reality.

original material, 1987; revised April 18, 1995,
October 14, 1995, August 14, 1996, April 9, 1999. June 11, 2001.

A Quote from C.S. Lewis: It is a very silly idea that
in reading a book you must never "skip." All sensible
people skip freely when they come to a chapter which they find
is going to be no use to them. In this chapter I am going to talk
about something which may be helpful to some readers, but which
may seem to others merely an unnecessary complication. If you
are one of the second sort of readers, then I advise you not to
bother about this chapter at all but to turn on to the next.

In the last chapter I had to touch on the subject of prayer,
and while that is still fresh in your mind and my own, I should
like to deal with a difficulty that some people find about the
whole idea of prayer. A man put it to me by saying "I can
believe in God all right, but what I cannot swallow is the idea
of Him attending to several hundred million human beings who are
all addressing Him at the same moment." And I have found
that quite a lot of people feel this.

Now, the first thing to notice is that the whole sting of it
comes in the words at the same moment. Most of us can imagine
God attending to any number of applicants if only they came one
by one and He had an endless time to do it in. So what is really
at the back of this difficulty is the idea of God having to fit
too many things into one moment of time.

Well that is of course what happens to us. Our life comes to
us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes
along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what
Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for granted
that this Time series--this arrangement of past, present and future--is
not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really
exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself
are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many
learned men do not agree with that. It was the Theologians who
first started the idea that some things are not in Time at all:
later the Philosophers took it over: and now some of the scientists
are doing the same.

Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist
of moments following one another. If a million people are praying
to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in
that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty--and
every other moment from the beginning of the world--is always
the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all
eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put
up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.

That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not
the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write
"Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the
door! " For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of
my story there is no interval between putting down the work and
hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in
that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of
that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours
and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if
she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased,
and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary's time
(the time inside the story) at all.

This is not a perfect illustration, of course. But it may give
just a glimpse of what I believe to be the truth. God is not hurried
along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author
is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has
infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have
to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as
if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died,
He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the
only man in the world.

The way in which my illustration breaks down is this. In it
the author gets out of one Time-series (that of the novel) only
by going into another Time-series (the real one). But God, I believe,
does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled
out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is, so to speak, still
1920 and already 1960. For His life is Himself.

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have
to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which
the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one:
we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach
C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round,
contains the whole line, and sees it all.

The idea is worth trying to grasp because it removes some apparent
difficulties in Christianity. Before I became a Christian one
of my objections was as follows. The Christians said that the
eternal God who is everywhere and keeps the whole universe going,
once became a human being. Well then, said 1, how did the whole
universe keep going while He was a baby, or while He was asleep?
How could He at the same time be God who knows everything and
also a man asking his disciples "who touched me?" You
will notice that the sting lay in the time words: "While
He was a baby" --"How could He at the same time?"
In other words I was assuming that Christ's life as God was in
time, and that His life as the man Jesus in Palestine was a shorter
period taken out of that time--just as my service in the army
was a shorter period taken out of my total life. And that is how
most of us perhaps tend to think about it. We picture God living
through a period when His human life was still in the future:
then coming to a period when it was present: then going on to
a period when He could look back on it as something in the past.
But probably these ideas correspond to nothing in the actual facts.
You cannot fit Christ's earthly life in Palestine into any time-relations
with His life as God beyond all space and time. It is really,
I suggest, a timeless truth about God that human nature, and the
human experience of weakness and sleep and ignorance, are somehow
included in His whole divine life. This human life in God is from
our point of view a particular period in the history of our world
(from the year A.D. one till the Crucifixion). We therefore imagine
it is also a period in the history of God's own existence. But
God has no history. He is too completely and utterly real to have
one. For, of course, to have a history means losing part of your
reality (because it had already slipped away into the past) and
not yet having another part (because it is still in the future):
in fact having nothing but the tiny little present, which has
gone before you can speak about it. God forbid we should think
God was like that. Even we may hope not to be always rationed
in that way.

Another difficulty we get if we believe God to be in time is
this. Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows
what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am
going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well,
here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is
progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being
that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true,
if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand
how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside
and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call "tomorrow"
is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call today."
All the days are "Now" for Him. He does not remember
you doing things yesterday, He simply sees you doing them: because,
though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not "foresee"
you doing things tomorrow, He simply sees you doing them: because,
though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never
supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because
God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions
in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can
simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action tin
you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it
is already "Now" for Him.

This idea has helped me a good deal. If it does not help you,
leave it alone. It is a "Christian idea" in the sense
that great and wise Christians have held it and there is nothing
in it contrary to Christianity. But it is not in the Bible or
any of the creeds. You can be a perfectly good Christian without
accepting it, or indeed without thinking of the matter at all.
(C.S. Lewis, Time And Beyond Time, from Mere Christianity)

Ray C. Stedman on Time and Eternity

The Best Is Yet To Be

Well, what is it, that is coming? Like a good chef, Paul has
been whetting our appetites and stimulating our anticipation by
veiled references to some breathtaking experience yet to come.
But now he grows specific. In chapter five he describes the weight
of glory in more explicit terms:

"For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we haw a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our
heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found
naked . For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety;
not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further
clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."
(2 Corinthians 5:14)

"A building from God" . . . "a house not made
with hands" . . . "our heavenly dwelling," what
do these expressions refer to? They are obviously set in direct
contrast to "the earthly tent we live in" which is clearly
the present body of flesh and bones. But before we take a closer
look at these phrases, note how definite and certain Paul is.
See how he begins: "We know . . . " There is nothing
uncertain about it at all.

Many today, as in the past, are trying to guess what lies beyond
death. Some have supposed that the spirit of man departs, only
to return in some reincarnation of life as another human being.
The evidence used to support this is usually the testimony of
certain persons (often given through a medium or in a hypnotic
state) who apparently recall whole episodes from their previous
existence. But it must be remembered that the Bible consistently
warns of the existence of "lying spirits" or demons
who have no compunctions about representing themselves to be the
spirits of departed persons and who take delight in deceiving
humans. Others have suggested that knowledge of such things is
put beyond us, that the only proper approach to life is to view
everything as tentative, nothing can be depended on for sure.
But Jesus and the apostles never speak that way. Christ said that
he came to tell us the truth, that we might know. The Apostle
John underlines this point again and again, saying, "These
things are written that you might know." So Paul says here,
we know certain things about life beyond death.

Things We Really Know

Well, what do we know? First, says Paul, we know that we now
live in an earthly tent. Twice he calls the present body a tent.
Tents are usually temporary dwellings. Once I visited a family
who lived in a tent in their yard while waiting for their new
house to be finished. It wasn't very comfortable, but they were
willing to put up with it until they could move into their real
house. This is the case, Paul says, with Christians. They are
living temporarily in tents.

Further, he says that in this tent we both groan and sigh.
Do you ever listen to yourself when you get up in the morning?
Do you ever groan? It is quite evident that the apostle is right,
isn't it? There is the groan of daily experience. Perhaps the
tent is beginning to sag. The cords are loosening and the pegs
are growing wobbly. There may also be the sigh of expectancy.
"We sigh with anxiety," says the apostle, "not
that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed."
No one wishes to be disembodied (unclothed), but nevertheless,
we do long sometimes for something more than this body offers.
We feel its limitations. Have you ever said when invited to do
something, "I wish I could; the spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak"? That is the sigh of anxiety, longing to be
further clothed.

The Heavenly House

In contrast to this temporary tent in which we now live, the
apostle describes the permanent dwelling waiting for us when we
die. It is "a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. " This is the indescribable "weight
of glory" which is now being prepared for us by the trials
and hardships we experience. If the present tent is our earthly
body, then surely this permanent dwelling is the resurrection
body, described in 1 Corinthians:

"So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is
sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown
in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it
is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised
a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also
a spiritual body." (15:42-44)

If the apostle can describe our physical body as a tent, then
it is surely fitting to describe the resurrection body as a house.
A tent is temporary; a house is permanent. When we die, we will
move from the temporary to the permanent; from the tent to the
house, eternal in the heavens. This resurrection body is further
described:

"For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable
puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death
is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).

When we compare this passage with the one we are considering
in 2 Corinthians 5, we note that the word for "clothed"
("that we would be further clothed") is exactly the
same Greek word as the one translated "put on" in 1
Corinthians 15 ("this perishable must put on the imperishable").
This present perishable body of ours must be clothed with imperishable
life, and this present mortal nature must be clothed with immortality.
It is at that time, says Paul, that "death is swallowed up
in victory." Compare that with the statement of 2 Corinthians
5, "that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life."
The two passages are clearly parallel and the "house not
made with hands" is the resurrection body of 1 Corinthians
15.

Is There A Temporary Tent?

But this poses a serious problem with some. They say, "Well,
if' the building of God' is the resurrection body, then what does
a believer live in while he is waiting for the resurrection body?
Resurrection won't occur till the second coming of Jesus. What
about the saints who have died through the centuries? Their bodies
have been placed in the grave and won't arise until the resurrection;
what do they live in during the interim?"

To this problem three widely varying answers have been posed.
One is that departed saints have no bodies until the resurrection.
They are with the Lord but as disembodied spirits, incomplete
until regaining their bodies at the resurrection. But this view
ignores Paul's words, "{We} long to put on our heavenly dwelling
so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. " And
again, "We sigh with anxiety, not that we would be unclothed,
but that we would be further clothed." Furthermore, the language
of both 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 seems to imply an
immediate donning of the resurrection body. There is no hint of
any waiting period.

A second answer to the problem is that of soul sleep. This
theory says that when a believer dies his soul remains asleep
within the dead body. When the body is raised at the resurrection,
the soul awakens. But because it has been asleep since death,
it has no knowledge of the intervening time and no awareness of
having been asleep. This concept solves the problem of the missing
bodies but directly contravenes such Scriptures as the Lord's
words to the thief on the cross, "Today shall you be with
me, in Paradise," and Paul's declaration, "we would
rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2
Corinthians 5 :8).

Still a third group proposes to solve the problem by suggesting
that the "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,"
is not the resurrection body at all but an intermediate body which
God gives the believer to live in until the resurrection. Presumably,
at that time, the intermediate body is dissolved and only the
resurrection body exists. But it is difficult to square that with
the description, "eternal in the heavens. " Such a view
also destroys the parallelism of 2 Corinthians 5 and 1 Corinthians
15. Since there is no hint anywhere in Scripture of the existence
of an intermediate body, the view seems hardly tenable.

The Problem Disappears

The problem these strange answers propose to solve is really
no problem at all. It arises only when we insist on projecting
the concepts of time into eternity. We constantly think of heaven
as a continuation on a larger and perfect scale of life on earth.
Locked into our world of space and time, we find it very cult
to imagine life proceeding on any other terms. But we must remember
that time is time and eternity is eternity and never the twain
shall meet. We experience something of the same difficulty in
dealing with the mathematical concept of infinity. Many people
imagine infinity to be a very large number, but it is not. The
difference is that if you subtract 1 from a very large number,
you have one less, but if you subtract 1 from infinity you still
have infinity.

Dr. Arthur Custance, a Canadian scientist who is also a remarkable
Bible scholar and author of a series of biblical-scientific studies
called Doorway Papers, has
written something very helpful on this:

"The really important thing to notice is that Time stands
in the same relation to Eternity, in one sense, as a large number
does to infinity. There is one sense in which infinity includes
a very large number, yet it is quite fundamentally different
and independent of it. And by analogy, Eternity includes Time
and yet is fundamentally something other. The reduction of Time
until it gets smaller and smaller is still not Eternity. Nor
do we reach Eternity by an extension of Time to great length.
There is no direct pathway between Time and Eternity. They are
different categories of experience." (Doorway Paper No.
37)

The thing we must remember in dealing with this matter of life
beyond death is that when time ends, eternity begins. They are
not the same, and we must not make them the same. Time means that
we are locked into a pattern of chronological sequence which we
are helpless to break. For example, all human beings sharing the
same room will experience an earthquake together. While there
are varying feelings and reactions, everyone will feel the earthquake
at the same time. But in eternity events do not follow a sequential
pattern. There is no past or future, only the present NOW. Within
that NOW all events happen. An individual will experience sequence,
but only in relationship to himself, and events will occur to
him on the basis of his spiritual readiness. No two individuals
need, therefore, experience the same event just because they happen
to be together.

When Time Ends

All this may sound quite confusing, and it is true it contains
great elements of speculation. But let us return to the Scriptures
and the problem of what happens to the believer when he dies.
Holding firmly to the essential point that time and eternity are
quite different, then when a believer steps out of time, he steps
into eternity. What was perhaps a far-off distant event in time
is suddenly present in eternity if one is spiritually prepared
for it. Since the one great event for which the Spirit of God
is now preparing believers here on earth is the coming of Jesus
Christ for his own, that is the event which greets every believer
when he dies. It may be decades or even centuries before it breaks
into time, but this particular person is no longer in time. He
is in eternity. He sees "the Lord coming with ten thousands
of his saints," just as Enoch did when he was permitted a
look into eternity, and at a time when he was the seventh from
Adam and the population of the earth was very small (Jude 14).

Where The Ages Meet

But what is even more amazing is that in the experience of
that believer he does not leave anyone behind. All his loved ones
who know Christ are there too, including his Christian descendants
who were not even born yet when he died! Since there is no past
or future in heaven, this must be the case. Even those who, in
time, stand beside his grave and weep and then go home to an empty
house, are, in his experience, with him in glory. Dr. Custance
carries this even further.

"The experience of earth saints is shared by all other
saints, by those who have preceded and those who are to follow.
For them all, all history, all intervening time between death
and the Lord's return is suddenly annihilated so that each one
finds to his amazement that Adam, too, is just dying and joining
him on his way to meet the Lord: and Abraham and David, Isaiah
and the Beloved John, Paul and Augustine, Hudson Taylor and you
and I--all in one wonderful experience meeting the Lord in a single
instant together, without precedence and without the slightest
consciousness of delay, none being late and none too early."
(Doorway Paper No. 37, p. 28)

This truly astonishing quality of eternity is the reason Jesus
could promise his disciples with absolute certainty, "And
when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John
14:3). That promise not only applied to that generation of Christians,
but would apply to all, directly and personally, through all the
intervening centuries. This also explains the strange promise
at the close of Hebrews 11. Speaking of Abraham, Moses, David,
Jacob, Joseph, and others the writer says, "All these, though
well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised,
since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from
us they should not be made perfect"

To be "made perfect" is to be resurrected, so this
passage specifically states that the saints of old will not be
resurrected without us. Either they are disembodied spirits waiting
for the resurrection (which we have already seen is not likely)
or there is some way by which we can leave time one by one and
yet participate together in one glorious experience of resurrection.
The proper understanding of eternity supplies the answer.

Eternity Invades Time

There are other references in Scripture that present this same
phenomenon of the apparent eclipse of time. For instance, in Revelation
13:8, Jesus is referred to as "the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world." Now the cross occurred at a precise
moment of history. We know when the Lamb of God was slain. But
the Bible says it occurred before the foundation of the world.
How can an historical event which occurred at a certain spot on
earth, in the biblical reckoning be said to have occurred before
the earth was even made? The passage does not say that the Lamb
was foreordained to be slain before the foundation of the world,
but it says he was actually slain then. Surely it means that the
cross was an eternal event, taking place both in time and eternity.
In time, it is long past; in eternity, it forever occurs. So also
would the resurrection, and in the same way, the second coming
of Christ. When any Christian dies, he passes from the realm of
time and space into timelessness, into the NOW of God when the
full effect of these timeless events is experienced by him to
whatever degree his spiritual state requires. But the Lord's return
is an event yet to take place in historical time when the Church
is complete and the end of the age has come. Perhaps this is the
meaning of the Lord's words: "Truly, truly, I say to you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:25).

A problem passage for some, in this respect, has been Revelation
6:9-11 where John sees the souls of those who had been slain for
the Word of God under the altar in heaven. They are crying out
to God, "How long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood
on those who dwell upon the earth." In response they are
told to be patient a little longer until the full count of martyrs
is complete. This seems to indicate a sense of time in heaven
and a need to wait for something in the future. How do we explain
this in the light of what we have just seen regarding time and
eternity? The explanation, of course, is that John, who sees all
this, is still a man living in time and space on earth. It is
necessary, therefore, that what he sees in heaven be communicated
to him in the symbols and language of earth. This is a common
phenomenon in the Book of Revelation. In the first chapter John
sees Jesus in heaven. Does he really have long white hair and
feet like burnished bronze and does a sharp sword come out of
his mouth? No, clearly these are symbols which convey to John
the power, wisdom, and glory of the Lord Jesus in his glorified,
risen estate. The truth conveyed by the vision of the souls under
the altar is evidently their identification with and concern for
their brethren who are still on earth. They express themselves
in terms of time and space in order that John (and we) may understand.

Can We Come Back?

Perhaps this also indicates a further condition of the eternal
experience: those who have stepped out of time into eternity can,
if they so choose, step back into time again, though remaining
invisible. That is, of course, exactly what Jesus did repeatedly
during his forty-day post-resurrection ministry. To those in eternity,
time may be like a book on our library bookshelf. If we choose,
we can pick up and browse through it at random. We can enter the
time sequence found in the book at any place we desire, follow
it through for as long as we like, and then lay it down to reenter
(in consciousness) the time sequence in which we normally live.
In similar fashion those in eternity may select some period of
history which they would like to live through and step back into
that time, living out its events, though invisibly. This, of course,
is pure speculation and may not prove to be true at all, but it
does at least fit the suggestion of Scripture that in a resurrected
state we will be free from many of the limitations of our present
body of flesh.

One thing is clear. Paul looked forward with keen anticipation
to the day when he would put off his earthly tent and move into
his heavenly dwelling. It would be, he says, a "spiritual"
body, not meaning, as many have supposed, a body made up of spirit
something rather ethereal and immaterial but rather a body fully
subject to the spirit, designed expressly for the spirit. Now
we must say, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
" Then we can say, "My spirit is willing and the flesh
is equal to its demands. Let's go!" Perhaps a quote from
C.S. Lewis will help understand this point.

"The command 'Be ye perfect' is not idealistic gas. Nor
is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us
into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible)
that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His
words. If we let Him---for we can prevent Him, if we choose---He
will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess,
a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through
with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now
imagine, a bright stainless mirror which rests back to God perfectly
(though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power
and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts
very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He
meant what He said." (Mere Christianity, p.
171)

Yes, something more is coming something so different from anything
we have known up to now that it defies description. Yet it is
something so splendid and glorious that, even whispered, it sends
chills of expectation down the spine of the universe. Phillips'
version of Romans 8:18-19 is beautifully expressive of this: "In
my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than
nothing compared with the magnificent future God has in store
for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight
of the sons of God coming into their own."

Glenn Miller of the Christian Think Tank has two excellent articles on the nature of time. Glenn says,
"The issue of trying to stand 'outside of time' ourselves to look at the relation of God to time (and hence, any type of plan)
is intrinsic to the problem, in my opinion. Our vantage point is simply too limited. C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce,
reports this conversation between his "Teacher" George McDonald and the narrator:

"...all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain.
The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it.
But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak)
when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears.
Time is the very lens through which ye see, small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope--something
that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker
and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture,
through the inverted telescope. In is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice
that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom.
They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic's vision)
that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of time destroys your knowledge of Freedom.
Witness the doctrine of predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real;
but at the price of removing freedom which is the deeper truth of the two." (end of chapter 13).

I personally have to agree with this type of 'reverent agnosticism'-- we run into problems as soon as we try to conceptualize something/someOne
'outside' space and time. We are forced (in the Epistemic Bubble) to use metaphors as we approach the 'edges.' Consider this simple diagram:

In this 'view' of the relationship between God and time, God is 'outside' time, and indeed 'surrounds' it.
All events in history are both 'foreknown' (from the left) and 'postknown' (from the right). A person standing, for example,
at Event B would know the 'future' of those standing at Event A, just as I 'know the future' of when my newlywed mother will give birth to glen,
her firstborn son. For such a view of God--in which all events of history are perceived in some 'Eternal Now' (as the philosophers call it)
--concepts such as 'foreknowledge' become much less useful for discussing this problem of 'foreknowledge and the Plan'..."

Time and Eternity, by William Lane Craig, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL 2001.

God, Eternity, and the Nature of Time by Alan G. Padgett, Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR 1992.

Measuring Eternity, by Martin Gorst, Broadway Books, NY, NY 2001.

"...the
problem [of time] is not a biblical or theological one - it is a philosophical one and
arises only by derivation from statements the Bible makes about God. He is
described as infinite, omniscient and omnipotent and yet able to permit man
to choose. He is also subject to or bound by nothing, including time. The
only way we can grasp all of this together is place time (containing all its
implications of cause and effect) alongside everything else as something
created. If created, time had a beginning and therefore God had to exist
apart from it.

It's worth noting that, although we're considering this issue from the
perspective of 21st century science trying to reconcile observation with
scriptural truth, it is not a new issue and one that has always occupied the
minds of thoughtful men and women of God.

Consider Anselm (1033 - 1109 AD):

"Indeed You exist neither yesterday nor today nor tomorrow but are absolutely
outside all time. For yesterday and today and tomorrow are completely in
time; however, You, though nothing can be without You, are nevertheless not
in place or time but all things are in You. For nothing contains you, but You
contain all things." (Proslogion, Chapter 19).

Augustine (354 - 430 AD) puts it like this:

"If we are right in finding the distinction between eternity and time in the
fact that without motion and change there is no time, while in eternity there
is no change, who can fail to see that there would have been no time, if
there had been no creation to bring in movement and change, and that time
depends upon this motion and change, and is measured by the longer or shorter
intervals by which things that cannot happen simultaneously succeed one
another? Since God, in whose eternity there is no change at all, is the
creator and director of time, I cannot see how it can be said that he created
the world after a lapse of ages, unless it is asserted that there was some
creation before this world existed, whose movements would make possible the
course of time.

"The Bible says (and the Bible never lies): 'In the beginning God made heaven
and earth.' It must be inferred that God had created nothing before that; 'In
the beginning' must refer to whatever he made before all his other works.
Thus there can be no doubt that the world was not created IN time but WITH
time. An event in time happens later one time and before another, after the
past and before the future. But at the time of creation there could have been
n

"The world was in fact made WITH time, if at the time of its creation change
and motion came into existence. this is clearly the the situation in the
order of the first six or seven days, in which morning and evening are named,
until God's creation was finished on the sixth day..." (City of God, Book 11, Chapter 6)

Aquinas (1225 - 1274 AD) uses the Latin translation of Exodus 15:18, viz.,
"the Lord shall reign for eternity and beyond" as the basis for
distinguishing between time and eternity as for several arguments he raises
on the issue, probably reducible to the following in his words:

"The notion of eternity follows immutability, as the notion of time follows
movement... Hence, as God is supremely immutable, it supremely belongs to Him
to be eternal. Nor is He eternal only, but He is His own eternity; but no
other being is its own duration, as no other is its own being. Now God is His
own uniform being, and hence, as He is His own essence, so He is His own
eternity... The 'now' that stands still, is said to make eternity according
to our apprehension. As the apprehension of time is caused in us by the fact
that we apprehend the flow of the 'now', so the apprehension of eternity is
caused in us by our apprehending the 'now' standing still. When Augustine
says that, 'God is the author of eternity,' this is to be understood of
participated eternity. For God communicates His eternity to some in the same
way that He communicates His immutability... God is not called eternal as if
He were in any way measured, but the notion of measurement is there taken
according to the apprehension of our mind alone... Words denoting different
times are applied to God, because His eternity includes all times and not as
if He Himself were altered through present, past and future." (Summa Theologica, First Part, Question 10).

As we move on through history we find the theme pretty much maintained and,
ironically, it is probably because of the theological conception of time and
eternity that relativity was conceived. Now, in an Einsteinian universe, time
is one of 4 observable dimensions, and is a element of reality equal to
height, breadth or depth. Thus, if space is something created, so is time, by
default. If created, it must be inside of what God does rather than the other
way around. This has been explained so much better by Lambert Dolphin and
many others - I just wanted to make the point that there is nothing novel
about the concept of God's existing outside of or apart from time but that it
has always been a preoccupation of those who have been interested in his
nature, to the extent that God's separation from time ultimately provided the
framework for most of modern cosmological/cosmogenic thought."